Minneapolis Telecommunications Network
Board of Directors Meeting
Thursday, August 10, 2006

Board Members Present: Floyd Child, Marido Huber, Andrew Hedden, Joel Rainville, Joan Higinbotham, Kevin Jenkins, Tom Cassidy, Robert Vose
Board Members Absent: Tamir Nolley
Ex-Officio Present: Lance Leupold, Edie French, John Harrison
Others Present: Pamela Colby, Tom Borrup, Beth Peloff, Martin Hallanger

Child called the meeting to order at 5:36 p.m.

I. Opening Business

A. Comments from public, staff and board – Beth Peloff passed out postcards promoting MTN Access to Art.

B. Approval of the agenda. Approve Agenda: MSP Vose, Huber
C. Approval of Minutes from the July meeting. Correction from Edie French. Delete "because" and what follows in the Minneapolis Public Schools section. Approve change. MSP Jenkins, Higinbotham. Approve whole minutes MSP, Higginbotham, Jenkins


II. Reports

A. City of Minneapolis – C. John Harrison presented
2007 performance agreement meeting with Pam went well yesterday. The city settled with Time Warner and Comcast. Settlement agreement is all that happened. Franchise agreement is still in the works. 15 yr franchise. The PEG fees were set as follows: $.37 through 2008, $.50 in 2010, $1.00 in 2011, $1.25 in 2016. The City is experiencing some audio problems on their channel. Martin and playback operators let them know about it. $3.5 million one-time fee for PEG or wifi. Vose: what about equipment money from Comcast. Not in the settlement, but could be in the franchise, has to be negotiated still. Vose: Is this an issue the city is interested in bringing up. Harrison says he has to look into it. : the lawsuits are settled, but the franchise still has to be negotiated? Harrison: Yes

B. Minneapolis Public Schools – Edie French presented
They just got a completely new camera system for school board meetings. Installing nexus playback so schools can do more programming during the day. Also got Castnet for billboards. These changes will give the public schools more control over what plays on their channels. Pam said Cathy Burns emailed her report, but Pam can't get it right now because her computer is not accessible right now. Channel was 76 off the air. Harrison said they got several calls at the city. Martin said that it was off over the weekend. He helped them fix it. It was a simple problem.

Vose had a question for Harrison: The settlement is very complicated. Can the city give us a summary in writing about what the city thinks this means for us. As a part of the summary he said he would like the city to say whether it was going to seek funds from Comcast to pay for the equipment outlined in the needs assessment. Harrison said he would get us a summary.

C. Time Warner Report – Lance Leupold presented
The subscriber count is 77,511. Comcast assumed ownership and management of Time Warner cable in Minneapolis on August 1. He said they know very little, but all will be revealed soon, with 30 days notice for any changes. Child: serviceable unites. 42 or 43 %. Colby: Are you still going to be the rep for the board? Leupold: Haven't heard yet. I'm presuming so, but don't know for sure.

D. Executive Director's Report – Colby presented
She hasn't heard back from civil rights commission case "Don Samuels vs MTN." Jenkins said he was notified, forgot date, didn't make it, contacted them, but haven't gotten another call. Child did go, was difficult. Felt they had prejudged the case. He hoped he was able to make them reconsider their presumptions.

State Fair. Martin is organzing community television booth at the fair. French said she would be in the same building. Jenkins: Are there shifts that need to be filled? Hallanger: yes. Higinbotham: Do you need to know anything to work at the booth? There are trainings, but you'd be there with someone who knows what to do. Higinbotham said she saw it last year, it was fun. Hallanger is going to get schedule and will return shortly with it. French asked if volunteers get in for free. Colby: Yes.

Executive committee has discussed writing a letter to elected officials about the funding for equipment. Higinbotham moves that the executive committee direct the Executive Director to write elected officials regarding the equipment money. Vose; how would MTN ask for concerns about future funding for equipment? Vose asked Harrison if he knows how soon MTN can a summary or the settlement agreement. Harrison said he could have a summary to MTN by Aug 18. Vose said that MTN has to move quickly, but we don't want to speculate on the city's interpretation of the agreement. He said he would prefer to have the summary before the end of next week The motion above was repeated. MSP. Higinbotham, Huber.

E. Treasurer's Report – Huber presented
Looks good. Motion to approve Treasurer's Report. MSP Higinbotham, Jenkins.


Tom Borrup presented his professional bio and and outline for strategic planning and positioning for MTN.

Questions: Cassidy asked how long would Borrup be a resource, what is timleline? Borrup responded that this type of planning process is usually a 5-6 month process. Jenkins asked if Borrup can bring in ideas from other organizations he has worked with into the process with MTN. Borrup said that he would be able to do that and would do additional research. He would borrow bits and pieces from many different places to help put together a plan that would fit MTN. Cassidy said we could collect info at state fair. Hallanger said the booth was for other centers, not just MTN, so it would be better if we could make it broader, so it would be useful for other access centers too. Child asked if this is the best time to do it. Borrup said, yes, it is. Vose said: We are connected to the city. How do we work with that? Borrup said there are always more tensions during franchise renewal. Borrup said he has good relationships with city council members and the mayor. He can have frank conversations with them about the value of MTN, tying MTN to economic development and social capital. Vose said he likes the idea of looking into new strategies, but also keeping relationship with city. Huber said that every time is good timing. She is glad we will be taking inventory of core values, because she said we have no credibility with city since we don?t have a strategic plan. She said she is grateful that Borrup will help us do that. Borrup said that it is best not to do planning during a crisis. It?s good that MTN is a stable organization right now. It is a good time to make a plan. Tom Cassidy said we should try to find a way to brainstorm with stakeholders. Borrup suggested a live call-in show.

Child asked what the next step for the board is. Colby suggested that the board direct her to work with Borrup and prepare a written contract with him. Colby will talk with the finance committee before making any financial commitments to Borrup. MSP Huber, Hedden

Next board meeting September 14
III. Adjourn
Meeting adjourned at 7:05 p.m. MSP Huber, Jenkins.